Adolphus Hailstork

Adolphus Hailstork received his doctorate in composition from Michigan State University, where he was a student of H. Owen Reed. He had previously studied at the Manhattan School of Music, under Vittorio Giannini and David Diamond, at the American Institute at Fontainebleau with Nadia Boulanger, and at Howard University with Mark Fax.

Dr. Hailstork has written numerous works for chorus, solo voice, piano, organ, various chamber ensembles, band, and orchestra

Significant performances by major orchestras (Philadelphia, Chicago, and New York) have been conducted by leading conductors such as James de Priest, Paul Freeman Daniel Barenboim, Kurt Masur, Lorin Maezel, Jo Ann Falletta and David Lockington.

Recent commissions include RISE FOR FREEDOM, an opera about the Underground Railroad, premiered in the fall of 2007 by the Cincinnati Opera Company, SET ME ON A ROCK (re: Hurricane Katrina), for chorus and orchestra, commissioned by the Houston Choral Society (2008), and the choral ballet, THE GIFT OF THE MAGI, for treble chorus and orchestra, (2009). In the fall of 2011, ZORA, WE’RE CALLING YOU, a work for speaker and orchestra was premiered by the Orlando Symphony. I SPEAK OF PEACE commissioned by the Bismarck Symphony (Beverly Everett, conductor) in honor of (and featuring the words of) President John F. Kennedy was premiered in November of 2013.

Hailstork’s newest major works, are ROBESON, an operatic theater work (written for the Trilogy Opera Company of Newark, New Jersey), and HERCULES (“the veriest dandy slave”) a concert overture for the Grand Rapids Symphony which was premiered in October 2014. Current projects are BOUND FOR THE PROMISED LAND for the Atlanta Festival (November 2016) and NDEMARA for the Myrelinques Festival of France (May 2017).

Dr. Hailstork resides in Virginia Beach Virginia, and is Professor of Music and Eminent Scholar at Old Dominion University in Norfolk.

Engaging and heartwarming… The music…favors a tangy Franco-American lyricism, while assimilating echoes of spirituals, cowboy songs and jazzy inflections.–Scott Cantrell, Kansas City Star

This through-composed piece with lively music by Adolphus Hailstork and a clever libretto by Susan Kander is singable by older students and a few young professionals, but is sophisticated enough to qualify as opera.–Heidi Waleson, The Wall St Journal

RISE FOR FREEDOM… a gem of a chamber opera … Hailstork has composed a score that sounds of pure Americana – engagingly rhythmic [and] lyrical.–Janelle Gelfand, The Cincinnati Inquirer

VIOLIN CONCERTO…the piece nodded toward such black idioms as blues and jazz, but mostly went its own lively and engaging way…a mixture of virtuosic, satirical and lyrical effects…the piece has a quirky personality in which serious intent keeps breaking through.–Andrew L. Pincus, Berkshire Eagle

2001: Eminent Scholar, Old Dominion University2001: Honorary Doctorate, College of William and Mary2000: Governor’s Award for the Arts, from the state of Virginia1995: First Place: University of Delaware Festival of New Music (for “Consort Piece”)1994: Outstanding Faculty Award of the state of Virginia1992: Cultural Laureate Award of the state of Virginia1983: First Prize: Virginia CBDNA College Band Symposium